Ein Letzes Mal
by Winds 0f Change
Summary: Death happens, everyday whether we want it or not people die, the only difference about now is that were in a war, its normal for people to die. And we can't change the past...aber ich muß versuchen


**Ein Letztes Mal**

By: Winds 0f Change

**Summary:** In the year 2015, two girls in their mid-twenties stumble on a startling discovery, a doorway that leads between two worlds, two extremely similar but different worlds. With their country in shambles because of so much war, these girls wonder if the people in this other world may find it within their hearts to help their country and the world itself from going into complete poverty and a world-wide depression; unfortunately, this gate was destroyed a years after the first World War and nearing the Holocaust, in their attempt to rebuild the gate, their plan goes horribly wrong and leaves them both dead. At least 75 years before this, a young adult named Edward Elric has nightmares of the gate reopening, even though he and his brother had destroyed it a year before, these nightmares continue to plague him. In the year 2007, a young girl awakens with no memory of the past 16 years of her life and a strange knowledge of a world with a science called "Alchemy," while wrecking havoc on her home state Utah, Edward in the past is faced with the holocaust and the arrest of his friend Noah as she's placed in a prison camp. She discovers a startling future after reading his dreams, but is taken away before she is able to tell him of this. While the world of 2007 begins to move closer and closer to a possible third World War as other countries become involved in the battle between the US and Iraq, lies and deciet are found within the high powers of the US as they attempt to capture the girl who herself seems to have other things in mind. Edward and his brother Alphonse are torn between helping a country with their friends and family, or getting to America and trying to stop the crisis that is supposed to happen over sixty years ahead of their time with people they've never met and at the same time as all of this...protecting the secret of their real home.

**Rated:** M–explicit violence and gore, character death, opinions on war, other such things.

**Warnings:** a bit of OOC, violence and other such business, crossover with FMA

**Differences from "Alchemic Reaction":** Emma does not know who Edward Elric, in her world in this story, there is no "FMA" TV show or anything, there aint a lot of similarities, in fact, Emma ain't even in this one! Efiris is my own different OC, so chill and enjoy the new story.

**Notes– **This story takes place years after the movie in the year 2015–Efiris is 25 years old, her friend Hannah, if your curious is 24. The theories on how Edward and Al sealed up the gate are strictly my own and are not in anyway connected with the creators of Full Metal Alchemist. BTW, the title means "One Last Time"...er, I think xD.

**Prologue/Chapter One: Rebuilding the Gate**

"This is it." She muttered, flipping her white-gray bangs out of her eyes. She bent down and opened her bag, pulling out a small brush she began to carefully clean the dust out of each crevice. A sign began to finally take shape from her tedious work. She blew off the excess dust and touched the engravings, while bending down again to pull out a chisel to scrape out the stone.

Her partner stood beside her, holding up the dim lamp, looking around nervously. She stared toward the cave entrance, which she knew led to a serious of complicated tunnels, which led to the entrance, which led to a cave opening that was going to be blown close in less than an hour.

She twisted a strand of black hair on her small finger.

"Come on, lets hurry Gergie! Who knows exactly how long it'll be until they close off the cave!"

The blond girl looked at her companion, "Gergie?" she said, grinning. "Your nervous habit of calling me that nickname when your edgy is back Hannah."

Hannah smiled, "That's right, and I'll keep calling you that Efiris, until you hurry and get the bloody rock out of the wall and get us out of here."

Efiris laughed, "I've got the stone, lets hurry and copy the inscriptions around it, I've got the sketch down, you write it and we'll be off."

Handing the paper to Hannah, Efiris took the lantern and waited.

_10 minutes..._

'Is that all?' Hannah thought, and here she was beginning to sweat even though the cave's temperature was probably between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. She was going to be okay, and so was Emma, it had only taken her 10 minutes to copy down the outer three circles of inscriptions, and now she was on the middle, and their hour was not yet wasted.

She smiled as she copied down the first inscriptions, if she and Efiris succeeded in this, they would finally have their piece in the museum, they'd finally get their dreams and Hannah would no longer have to live in poverty. She was never quite sure of Efiris's motives, but whatever it was, they were both finally going to succeed in life.

_Seven more inscriptions..._

Hannah's fingers fled while cool preparation dripped off her forehead, what was wrong with her? She was making good time, why'd she feel so panicked and hurried. The bomb wouldn't go off for another half and hour and she was almost done, why was she so nervous.

_Three more inscriptions..._

Hannah finally begun her final ones, she tried to steady her hand so they would also be readable and clear. She was finally on the last, very detailed, inscription when Efiris suddenly cleared her throat.

"Hannah...we have to go."

The first wave came fast and threw Hannah off of her feet and Efiris nearly into the wall. The second one she was prepared, for she picked up her paper and started hastily scribbling down the rest of the inscription. Efiris leapt up and went over to her, trying to pull her away.

"No! Hannah we have to go now!."

The third wave hit, causing Hannah to drop her pen, she ran for the pen and grabbed it, tripping, she fell onto the hard floor and scraped her face on the wall. Ignoring her pain, she rushed back to the wall, Efiris was attempting in every way to get her to go.

The fourth wave hit, Hannah quickly finished the inscription and then finally followed Elfiris, they rushed through the caves, avoiding rocks and finding their way around when coming to an already blocked tunnel. As they went and continued in blackness, smoke and occasional sparks of flames with each explosion, blinding them momentarily each time and burning their skin making it dark with ashes. Stumbling along, Efiris finally noticed the crevice where sunlight shone through.

"Lets go!"

They hurried toward the crevice and began the long climb up the rope ladder they had placed there, "Keep going Hannah!" Efiris encouraged as Hannah climbed and stubbornly clutched the drawings under her arm. But as she looked up, she realized with horror it was too late...the ropes were breaking.

"Hannah!" She screamed, before a fiery explosion silenced her and then everything went black.

* * *

"Wow, the matches actually work." Hannah said, surprised as she huddled close to the cave wall wrapped in a heavy wool blanket that Efiris had brought along in her bag. 

She had everything, food, shovels, communication devices (that didn't work at the moment because of the interference from all sorts of things from the bomb). But that didn't mean they had any chance of getting out, the radio looked like it had been damaged and they probably wouldn't last trying to dig their way out no matter what they had with them. Hannah tested the flashlights and was relieved to find that they worked as well since the matches wouldn't work very long with the lack of oxygen. So even though at the moment, from the prospect of living, Hannah and Efiris weren't feeling particularly lucky at all.

Efiris was over by the small puddles of water, nursing her injured head, she had gotten quite the mark from a heavy stone that hit her when the entrance to the cave collapsed and nearly killed them both, but Efiris had cut the ropes, sending them both falling, which was a much better fate than her being crushed by the oncoming boulder which had just luckily been stuck just above their heads before they ran back into the cave.

After she had wrapped a bandage over her head and pulled out a book, Efiris joined Hannah with an identical blanket to read, neither of them were in shape to try and escape now, so they both attempted to relax and they would try to start something in the morning. As Efiris read, Hannah watched a stalactite dripping water from the ceiling on the stalagmite below it. The constant drip had her entranced for at least a half-an-hour until Efiris letting out a slight cough broke her trance.

She looked over at Efiris who was no longer reading, but studying the drawing Hannah had done, she had their book they had gained at the library beside it, "Alchemy: The Magical Aspect", next to her to use if she needed to translate something. Hannah watched her read through the markings and the words quickly much of the book was actually German and it made her wonder if Alchemy had actually been used as 'magic' in Germany.

The book was actually published in the early 1900's during the time of the Holocaust, when Hitler, or the Führer, had the Nazi party established. In the book, it spoke of another world parallel to this one, a world the Germans thought to be called "Shambala." They tried to enter this alternate world and at one point succeeded, but quickly returned after a failed mission to gain weapons from that world to aid this one, they returned and an 18 year old boy who was said to have knowledge of Alchemy destroyed all possible routes to this alternate world forever by creating a strange series of circles and locking them up down here, sealing the place with a blood red stone–The Philosophers Stone.

Hannah sat there staring at the book, it was all rather fascinating but it sounded like a silly myth to her, anyone could have drawn those images and placed a red stone there, it just was not a logical story.

She looked at the book, it was written by a man named Fritz Lang, who also was a producer of several movies she had heard of, she wondered now what got him into alchemy, what was it that made him write that book.

She decided not to dwell on these thoughts, instead she noticed Efiris drawing something on the cave floor with a piece of white chalk. Looking closely, she realized it was one of the transmutation circles from that book...no...it was the one she herself had drawn a few hours ago! The red stone was sitting by the side of it, and obviously, Efiris intended to put it in the center of the drawing when it was complete.

"Gergie...Efiris, what on earth are you doing?"

Efiris looked up, noticing that Hannah had seen her work, "Drawing."

"I can see that, but why?"

Efiris continued to draw, "No reason."

Hannah cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing more. She knew that was the most information she'd get out of Efiris and it wasn't worth trying to force more out. She lay back against the cave wall and not long after that, she began to drift off to sleep. She started dreaming about her family at home, and how worried they must be. She prayed in her soul to God that they would be able to get out of this forsaken cave and return to the surface, she knew the air down their wouldn't last long either.

And with these thoughts in her head, she slept dreaming of what would happen if they were saved...or if they were doomed to die.

A loud noise woke her up from her slumber, she groaned as her head bounced off of the cave wall and rubbed it in pain. A blue light caught her attention, she looked up and couldn't stop herself from shrieking. The circle that had drawn was glowing a pale, silver-blue while Efiris sat in front of it, wide eyed, and frightened. Rocks fell from the ceiling and began to gather in that area forming a mass of pebbles that in itself looked like a swarm of insects.

Hannah forced herself to stand on shaky legs, "E-Efiris?! Wha-"

She didn't have the chance to finish, for at that moment, the wall exploded and the rocks sprang out toward the circle like shattered glass. Hannah ducked down as the rocks whizzed passed like a bullet out of a gun and joined the growing swarm. Quickly rolling out of the way as a boulder made it's way passed, she stared up at the swarm.

It spun this way and that, building itself to a greater form in a frightening harmony. They bunched together then began to glow before growing again, taking a shape that was more square than the circle they formed before. As the rocks spun, the crystals wedged inside many of them caught the light of the lanterns and shone blinding light toward her. Then, from the outside in, they began to form a definite, material shape...a door.

Before the actual door itself was complete, the swarm began to pulse, like a heart, beating through the door. The pulse was soundless, yet Hannah could feel and hear her own heart pulsing, following the beat of the black swarm.

She stumbled backwards as Efiris stayed where she was staring in horror, Hannah's hand reached what she thought was a wall, but the cool pebbled texture her fingers touched told her different. She looked behind her and realized the wall...well, whatever it was.

...it was green.

And it was moving, she followed it's long coils and found, with horror, her eyes fixed on the face of a dragon...a dragon that looked like it had been sleeping here for a very long time. It looked toward the pulse, which beat faster as if calling too it...calling to it to come forth and take an offering...and Hannah realized with terror what that was.

The dragon sprang forth, uncoiling itself and moving so quickly that Hannah didn't even feel the movement until a moment later, by then it was too late. She saw Efiris dangling from the beasts jaws.

Everything seemed to go so slow, a loud, sickening snap caused Hannah's own neck and body to ache as thick rushes of hot blood covered the ground beneath the dragons face, and Hannah felt the stinging liquid spatter against her own skin.

Efiris's jaw immediately went slack, the dragon dropped her and the gate was finished, as the doors opened the dragon disappeared through it.

Hannah, finally coming to her senses, ran forward, she picked up the book and began to draw the circle she nearly had memorized.

Dark hands reached through the gate and gripped Efiris, pulling her away, Hannah's scream was drowned by her own blood filling her throat.

That was the last time she'd ever scream.

* * *

Efiris stood there as if in a dream, the gate was before her and the doors open wide into a thick blackness. She felt no pain and no suffering as she stood here. While she peered forward into the gate, she made out the shape of someone standing there, then another...three more. Soon, all the people she had known in life were standing there, as if waiting for her. 

She began to move toward them then suddenly stop as she felt something, looking down she saw tracks from her feet...bloody tracks. Looking behind her, she saw Hannah...she seemed so far away. Lying there on the ground in blood that she wasn't sure if it was her's or Hannah's as well.

Efiris started to cry out to Hannah, and she realized that she had, in her lifetime, cost the lives of so many she knew...and loved. Friends, family, those that meant everything in the world to her. And they were all gone...because of her foolish mistakes and choices. She wanted to go back and fix everything, those people in the doorway...she needed to make things right...She wanted to let them know she did care and not let them die again.

It wasn't fair!

"I Want to Fix it!" she screamed, "I want to let them live, Hannah, oh please Hannah! Wake up!"

_"Geben sie mir eine zweite wahrscheinlichkeit am leben."_ She repeated, and on her original circle, these words appeared.

All too quickly, a horrible feeling came over her...a feeling of loss and terrible regret. She felt something dark and evil around her, looking behind her, she no longer saw the figures of people she knew, but a formless black mass coming about her...enveloping her. She saw these open mouths laughing and eyes burning. Shapeless arms caressed her and began to pull her.

She tried desperately to tear them away and free herself, but more came. She tried to run, but they suppressed her. She tried to scream, but they silenced her with cold hands.

The gates closed.

* * *

Edward sprung up from his sleep in cold sweat and heavy breathing. His eyes were wide and pupils dilated to a very large degree. Trying to calm himself, he looked around the room and saw both Alphonse and Noah sound asleep in their own beds, looking peaceful and calm. Obviously not suffering from the same nightmares he himself was experiencing. 

His nights had been filled with these horrid dreams for the passed month, and he was praying to a God he had never believe in to free him of the torture they put him through.

He wasn't quite sure why he was so worried, they were just dreams after all, the gate was destroyed and could never be reopened, so why worry? It had been at least a year and no one had yet uncovered the remains of the gate and the philosophers stone he had placed there.

The stone was there to keep anyone from reopening it, the place was protected by fierce traps and nobody had yet even uncovered this, even if they did, they couldn't make it all the way their, deep beneath the ground.

He looked out the window to see that the moon was still out and the sky was still dark. It meant that there were still a few hours left of night for him to sleep, he might as well since tomorrow he had things to do.

He'd tell Al and Noah about the dream in the morning.

* * *

_woo, this took me forever to write and perfect, I hope you enjoyed it and I'll get writing the next chapter as soon as I find the time and energy to do so...don't worry, haven't forgotten my other stories._

_Efiris, Hannah and my philosophy's © Me_

_Full Metal Alchemist and all associated with it © Not me_


End file.
